Run shipment tasks in a project¶
Guide information
Requirements
This tutorial requires the installation of the following applications/modules:
Freight Project & Operations Tasks (installed automatically once Freight Sale, Project Customization and Sales Timesheet are installed - that is, once the Project and Timesheets apps sit next to Freight Forwarder Management)
A shipment runs through several roles - Booking, documentation, customs, accounting - over a few days. Without one place that shows who is doing what and by when, the Operations Manager only learns a shipment is late after the customer calls, by which time the cutoff has already passed and the container has missed its sailing. This page uses Viindoo’s core Project and Task (see Guideline to basic features of Viindoo Project); Freight only adds the two-way link to the shipment - creating, assigning and closing a task is standard Project work.
Running scenario: Hai Long Logistics exports 2 x 40HC of footwear for Nhat Long Footwear, route Hai Phong Port to Port of Los Angeles, carrier ONE Line, Incoterm CFR (Port of Los Angeles), Freight Prepaid. The Ocean Freight - FCL line on the sales order is configured to open a Sea FCL Export project on confirmation. Duc (Operations Manager) tracks the resulting task list; Minh (Booking Officer), Hoa (Documentation) and Tuan (Accounting) carry out the tasks and log their hours.
Before you start¶
The freight product sold on the order (Ocean Freight - FCL) must already have Create on Order: Project and a Project Template set to the shipment’s transport type (Sea FCL Export for this scenario) - see the freight and local-charge product settings in Products, including the sale/purchase settings and Project Template. If it does not, confirming the order will not open a project on the shipment, and nothing on screen warns you.
Duc, Minh, Hoa and Tuan are in the User: All Shipments group (see the user’s Freight access in Settings > Users & Companies > Users) and also in Project: User - the freight groups do not grant Project access, and without it a user cannot change a task’s assignee, deadline or status or log hours.
The menu shows for every freight user, but the Tasks smart button on the shipment header only shows for Project: User.
Decide whether to open a new project or reuse one¶
Option |
Use when |
What changes |
|---|---|---|
Leave Project blank on the sales order before Confirm |
The shipment is standalone and needs the standard task set for its transport type, as here |
Confirming copies the Project Template on the freight product - 7 Sea FCL Export tasks, linked straight to the shipment |
Pre-set Project on the sales order before Confirm |
Several shipments for the same large contract or customer must roll up under one shared project |
No new project is created - only one task, named after the order line, is added to the project you chose; the 7-task template is not applied |
Leave Project blank only when the shipment should use the standard task list configured for its transport type. Select the assigned project when the shipment is managed under a customer or operational project; confirm the intended task template with the project owner if it is unclear.
See also
the freight and local-charge product settings in Products, including the sale/purchase settings and Project Template - where the Project Template is set.
Step 1: Open the project from the confirmed order¶
Confirming the sales order is what creates the project - there is no separate “create project” button on the shipment.
Open the confirmed order for Nhat Long Footwear from , or open the shipment directly (SHP/26xx/000nn).
After the order is confirmed:
The Tasks smart button on the shipment header shows 7.
The shipment’s Settings tab shows the Task Stages table, with To Do, In Progress, Done and Canceled from the project template.
Tip
Step 1 is done when: opening the Tasks button shows exactly 7 tasks, named Booking confirmation…, Draft B/L review… and so on, matching the Sea FCL Export template.
Step 2: Assign each task to the right person and set a deadline¶
No part of Viindoo suggests a deadline from the shipment’s cutoffs - each task needs a person and a date with enough buffer before the real cutoff it protects.
Go to and filter on Shipment = SHP/26xx/000nn. Open each task and set Assignees and Deadline, working back from this shipment’s cutoffs (Booking Cutoff 2026-10-28, SI Cutoff 2026-11-02 17:00, VGM Cutoff 2026-11-03 17:00, CY Cutoff 2026-11-04 12:00, ETD 2026-11-05):
Booking confirmation & space allocation: Minh, 2026-10-27.
Pre-carriage trucking & VGM submission: Minh, 2026-11-02.
Export customs declaration & clearance: Minh, 2026-11-03.
Draft B/L review & amendment confirmation: Hoa, 2026-11-04.
Customer invoice issuance & payment collection: Tuan, 2026-11-05.
Original B/L release (Telex or OBL): Hoa, 2026-11-06.
Carrier freight settlement: Tuan, 2026-11-20.
Warning
Setting a Deadline on the exact cutoff date, instead of a day or more ahead, leaves no room for delay - being a few hours late is enough for a container to be shut out of its sailing. Check the real cutoff first in Book carrier space for a shipment leg or Submit the container’s Verified Gross Mass (VGM).
Tip
Step 2 is done when: all 7 tasks have an Assignee and a Deadline, and every pre-sailing deadline sits before its cutoff - for example VGM submission on 2026-11-02, a day ahead of the 2026-11-03 17:00 VGM Cutoff.
Step 3: Log the hours actually worked on each task¶
Hours logged against the right task, on the right day, are the only record of how much staff time a shipment of this type takes.
On the task form, tab Timesheets (core, see Guideline to timesheet in the project), add a line with Date, Description and Hours Spent. Hoa logs 2 hours against Draft B/L review & amendment confirmation; by the end of the shipment Minh has logged 2 + 4 + 3 hours, Hoa 2 + 1 and Tuan 1 + 1.
Note
Logging a timesheet line here only guarantees one thing: the hours are recorded against the correct task, and that task is linked to this shipment. See Step 7 for how these hours are used afterward.
Tip
Step 3 is done when: every hour worked that day has been logged before the end of the working day, not batched up at the end of the week.
Step 4: Watch task progress across several shipments at once¶
A delay has to be visible before it becomes an incident at the port, not after the customer calls to ask.
, clear the shipment filter, then use Group By –> Assignees or Group By –> Shipment Stage to see who is overloaded across shipments.
Tip
Step 4 is done when: you have reviewed this list at least once at the start of the day and can name every task due within the next 24 hours.
Step 5: Act when a task is at risk of missing its cutoff¶
Acting early is far cheaper than a container shut out of its sailing.
When a task (for example VGM submission) looks likely to miss its deadline: add more people to it, ask for overtime, or warn the agent or carrier early if it is clearly not going to make it. There is no dedicated button or wizard for this - it is a coordination decision, recorded as a comment on the task or the shipment.
Warning
A container shut out for missing the VGM Cutoff can mean 1-2 weeks of storage plus rebooking on the next sailing - a typical industry consequence, not a fee schedule from any one carrier.
Tip
Step 5 is done when: every task at risk has a chatter comment recording how it is being handled - none is left red and unaddressed.
Step 6: Close tasks as the real work finishes¶
The project is only trustworthy when its state matches what has actually happened.
On the task’s kanban card or form, open the status selector and choose Done as soon as you have the matching proof - booking confirmed, VGM submitted, SI sent, HBL issued, customs cleared, or the invoice issued. Viindoo does not check for that proof before letting you close the task.
Important
Approval of the SI or Draft B/L completes the document review requirement; it does not prove that the carrier received the SI, that the original B/L was released, or that the customer and carrier were paid. Keep each operational task open until its own work is complete. The current Tasks counter can include Done or Cancelled tasks, so open the task list and check the states rather than relying on the counter.
Note
Closing a task only notifies the assignees of tasks that depend on it (Blocked By). The Sea FCL Export template does not set up any dependency between its 7 tasks, so closing one of them sends no such notification unless you add a dependency yourself.
Tip
Step 6 is done when: no task is Done or Cancelled while the real work behind it is still pending, and no task whose real work finished more than a day ago is still open.
Step 7: Review total hours to gauge internal workload¶
Knowing that an FCL export shipment takes about 14 hours of staff time helps plan staffing. Treat it as an internal productivity figure: the Gross Profit on the shipment’s Charges tab is built from charge lines only and does not include these hours (see Charges and Profitability).
Open each task of this shipment and read the total on its Timesheets tab, or use (Timesheets group User: all timesheets), then check the Shipment field on each task to see which shipment it belongs to.
Tip
Step 7 is done when: the 7 tasks of this shipment add up to 14 hours (Minh 9, Hoa 3, Tuan 2), a figure you can compare against a similar FCL export shipment.
Known limitations¶
Step |
What Viindoo does today |
What you do instead |
|---|---|---|
Set a deadline for each task (Step 2) |
No deadline is suggested from the shipment’s Booking, VGM, SI or CY cutoff |
Check the real cutoff in Book carrier space for a shipment leg or Submit the container’s Verified Gross Mass (VGM), then type the deadline yourself, ahead of that date |
Flag a task at risk (Step 4-5) |
No separate “at risk” flag exists for a task, unlike the shipment’s own tracking alert |
Sort or filter the Shipment Tasks list by Deadline and review it regularly |
One order, several transport modes (Step 1) |
An order whose freight products use different Project Templates creates one project per template; only the first is linked to the shipment |
Open the task list, move every task onto a single project, then archive the unused ones |
Compare total hours by shipment type (Step 7) |
No ready-made report totals hours “per shipment type” |
Use the Timesheets By Task report, then check each task’s Shipment field by hand |
Troubleshooting¶
Applying a template reports “Templates can only be applied to draft shipments”¶
Symptom: re-applying a Scenario Template to this shipment after it is Confirmed shows “Templates can only be applied to draft shipments.”
Cause: the Scenario Template wizard (a different feature, see Start a shipment from a template - not how the project in this guide was opened) only runs on a Draft shipment, to avoid overwriting data that is already in motion.
Fix:
Do not use the Scenario Template to “add back” a project once the shipment is Confirmed - the project only comes from the freight product’s configuration at the moment the order is confirmed (Step 1).
To add a task to a shipment that is already running, create the task directly and set its Shipment field - no template needed.
The order is confirmed but no project appears on the shipment¶
Symptom: the order is Confirmed and the shipment exists, but Task Stages is absent from Settings and Tasks remains 0 for a user with Project access. No error is shown.
Cause: the freight product on the order line does not have Create on Order: Project with a Project Template set (the condition in Before you start) - Viindoo only updates the shipment’s task fields when the order already produced a project, and quietly does nothing otherwise.
Fix:
Open the freight product (Ocean Freight - FCL, see the freight and local-charge product settings in Products, including the sale/purchase settings and Project Template), tab Sales: set Create on Order to Project and Project Template to the matching transport type.
The Project field on the shipment form is hidden and cannot be set by hand, even in Developer mode. For a shipment already running, create the tasks directly and set their Shipment field instead of trying to attach a project after the fact.
A task is marked Done but the real paperwork is not finished¶
Symptom: task “Original B/L release (Telex or OBL)” is Done on the kanban, but the B/L has not actually been released - the customer asks and the Operations Manager has no warning, because the project looks complete.
Cause: Viindoo does not check for business proof before letting a task’s status change - this is core Project behavior, and Freight adds no such check.
Fix:
Reopen the task and set it back to In Progress.
Agree as a team to only mark a task Done once the matching reference (document link, submission number) is on the task’s chatter.
See also
Related articles
the confirmed sales order and shipment: check the same customer, route and services before editing
the shipment profitability report: reconcile revenue, posted vendor costs and company currency before sharing figures